ToolGirl

Tables and Counters Made from Books

Got books?  Then this project has to appeal to your sensibilities.  Choose the tomes you're not going to want to read again and have at it.  See more cool book tables from the lovely Laura Fenton over at AOL Home.

 

Brilliant Way to Display Old Photos without Creating Clutter

I spend a little time every week enjoying human ingenuity on the web. 

This is a cool project if you have vertical blinds and a burgeoning photo collection. 

Very Groovy Site for Us Toolish Types - Curbly DIY Design Community

via www.curbly.com

Many tantalizing projects at this well-executed site. Quirky and delicious. OH, you'll have fun.

Sugru: Cool New Polymer Fixes and Sticks to Pretty Much Everything

via www.boingboing.net

Okay, this is the mind-blowing plasticoid compound I've been waiting for ever since I busted my first pair of sunglasses in '86.

I'm ordering some Sugru to try.  It looks like it has a pretty short working time, but I'm guessing it could replace duct tape as the adhesive device of choice for the modern handyperson.

Wall Desk

via www.skiltools.com

I subscribe to the Skil newsletter. Sometimes it has killer-cool projects. This wall desk is one of 'em.

The idea is great and the design (downloadable as a free PDF) looks pretty easy. I haven't tried it myself but I may modify it to use as a countertop computer cabinet in the kitchen. I gotta do something. There are cords everywhere and it looks kinda ooogly.

Natural Root Stand for iPod

via www.etsy.com

This is just the kind of weird-ass gorgeousness I love to see in woodworking. Substrata also does beautiful wooden iPhone cases (without the psycho root action).

Design*Sponge » henrique oliveira

via www.designspongeonline.com

This guy is an insanely inspiring artist. What a cool thing to do with busted, peely, scrappy wood. My fave is the curly worm-hole fort. And the giant reconstituted tree trunk.

Wisteria and a Boring Fence

In a far corner of our property stood the biggest, chunkiest, blankest piece of 10-foot fence you ever did see.  At the west end of it grows a wisteria, stymied by a lack of handholds for its curly, ambitious tendrils.

So this weekend I took a heap of deadfall and recently-trimmed limbs and applied it to the bland pressure-treated fence using 3-1/2 inch screws.  Then I wove fresh, still-leafy branches horizontally through the vertical limbs to create the un-boring texture of wattle-and-daub without the daub.

Some would say I made the fence uglier, but they will need to rethink their opinions in May when the wisteria has something to clamber over in the riotous spirit of Spring.

A Canadian ToolGirl is Going to Mexico on CityTV, Baby

Okay.  A ToolGirl definitely has to win this.

What exactly are ToolGirls good at it?  Well, everything.  But especially dreaming.

So the spoils of this CityTV contest --- which will send you and 3 of your favourite people (2 rooms, baby) to hang out for a week at Mexico's drop-dead gorgeous Azul Beach Hotel and eat gourmet foods, drink cocktails and bask in “Canopy Beach Beds” admiring the surf --- is surely worth entering. And it’s even courtesy of (sing it with me) iTravel2000.com.

What do you have to do to qualify? Oh, taste the deliciousness. 

Simply build a model of your ‘dream home’ with popsicle sticks, particle board, foam-core, plywood, sugar cubes or whatever you have in your drawers.  Then snap a photo of your model and send it to CityTV (easy form and rules). 

There’s only a week left.  Citytv launched this online contest on October 2nd to encourage Canadian families (or 'GROUP of FRIENDS' if you haven’t procreated yet) to spend time together by building a small-scale version of their "Extreme Dream Home."

The contest was created because, in case you hadn’t noticed, CityTV is now running Extreme Home Makeover, so they’re letting you in on the camaraderie, speed, fun and crying of that very show. 

High-profile Canadian designers Ramsin Khachi, Janette Ewen and Samantha Sannella, who are participating as judges, unveiled their own designs. 

Here's an example: Janette Ewen's modular aquarium house

Can you one-up a designer?  (To be fair, the designers didn’t get a trip to Mexico for their trouble.  But you will.)

The winning entry will be announced on www.Citytv.com on November 12, 2009.  I’m pulling for you.

Lathe Bloomer: How to Become a Woodturner

I love my lathe.  There.  I've said it.  It's an actual love relationship.  I pat it every time I walk past it in the workshop.  I bring it gifts (new chucks).  And I think about it when I'm cutting the lawn.

We recently finished a video that shows my very first woodturning project, which was making the voluptuous legs for my new desk.  Sure, I could have started small with a candlestick or a wine-stopper, but I really needed legs for my new desk and the idea of turning raw, angular blocks into silky-smooth curves made me feel like the Goddess of Undulations, if there was such a goddess. 

If you search YouTube you won't find very many woodturning videos with girls in them and I think we should change that.  Here's my entry: